Michael Westen somehow has pulled through another mess. At the end last season he was kidnapped yet again, leaving Fiona, Sam, and Maddy to clean up his mess. Somehow in the first episode of season four of Burn Notice, he comes out clean again.

The problem is, the storyline is getting too convoluted unless you are a spy. I watched the episode a few times through trying to get it all. It’s one where you have to pay attention to every little detail to be able to follow. Michael’s captor shows himself, and it’s a man working for the very people that burned him. Michael and the captor, Vaughn (Robert Wisdom), work together trying to stop a terrorist threat, and he then makes his triumphant return home.

Everyone isn’t necessarily 100% happy to see Michael come home. While they’re certainly relieved to see him alive, they want him to know what they had to endure in his absence. The most relieved is definitely Maddy (Sharon Gless). Michael seems to always be forced into telling her more and more of his secret life. Fiona and Sam (Gabrielle Anwar and Bruce Campbell) had to carry on and continue with a case while he was gone, and now they need Michael’s help to finish it. An attorney is being cornered by a biker gang and needs their help to get his life back.

It’s just the beginning of what promises to be another hot season. Next week we’ll have a new addition as Coby Bell (Third Watch) joins the cast as a counterintelligence expert who can assume other identities on a whim and looks forward to catching criminals. We learn about him at the end of this first episode. Burt Reynolds will have a guest appearance sometime this season as well, as a legend in the spy business, and will serve as a warning of Michael’s potentional future. That’s some great casting right there. Burt Reynolds has that smarmy thing going on that Michael seems to always walk the tightrope towards.

It’s an episode that draws you in but has so much going on you have to pay close attention. So while you’re watching this one, make sure you’re not catching up on email or cooking dinner or something, as your full attention needs to be on this to follow the action, and the references seem like they’ll all be brought out throughout the season, so if you’re lost in this episode, you might be lost for the whole season.

Catch the season premiere of Burn Notice on June 3 on USA.

Laura Tucker is the webmaster of Reality Shack and its accompanying Reality Shack Blog, provides reviews at Viewpoints, and provides entertainment news pieces at Gather. She is also an Instructor and 2nd dan black belt in tae kwon do with South Elgin Martial Arts. Laura can be reached at LauraBelle@realityshack.com.